A69235:135
A treatise against lying Wherein is showed what it is, the nature and causes…A treatise against lying Wherein is shevved vvhat it is, the nature and causes…
A treatise against lying Wherein is showed what it is, the nature and causes of this sin, the divers kinds of it; and that all of them are sinful, and unlawful, with the motives and means to preserve us from it, or to cure us of it. By John Downame, B. of D. and preacher of Gods Word.A treatise against lying Wherein is shevved vvhat it is, the nature and causes of this sinne, the divers kindes of it; and that all of them are sinfull, and unlawfull, with the motives and meanes to preserve us from it, or to cure us of it. By John Dovvname, B. of D. and preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Nicolas Bourne, 1636
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A TREATISE AGAINST THE SIN OF LYING. › Chapter 11A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 11
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
for I am a beast or brutish since I was a man, that is, even from my birth, and the wisdom of a man is not in me, that is, like that which was in man by his first creation (before by his fall he became brutish) and so ought to be in him still.
for I am a beast or brutish since I was a man, that is, even from my birth, and the wisedome of a man is not in me, that is, like that which was in man by his first creation (before by his fall hee became brutish) and so ought to be in him still.
Secondly, the example of the Apostle Paul is 1objected, who saith that he was the least of the Apostles, and not worthy to be called on Apostle, yea that he was the least of all the Saints; yea which is more, that he was the chief of sinners; whereas elsewhere he maketh himself equal to the chief of the Apostles, superior unto them all in his labours and sufferings, and as touching the Law a Pharisee, yea in respect of his life and conversation of the strictest of that Sect. From whence they conclude, that in those speeches wherein he so much abased himself he used a modest lye, and therefore that modest lies are in such cases lawful. To which I answer, that he called himself the least of the Apostles, and the least of the Saints, not simply and generally, but respectively, as he expresseth himself, because he had persecuted the Church of God. 2In which regard also he calleth himself the chiefest of sinners, as it is evident in the same places. But how can this be other than a modest lye, that Saint Paul should call himself the chiefest of sinners, seeing others committed far greater sins than he, and yet upon their repentance were received to mercy, as Manasseh? Some understand ⟨p. 110⟩the words, that he was the first of sinners (as the word may also signify) namely the first of all those that came unto Christ, who had before persecuted him in his members. But this had been no great aggravation of Pauls sin, nor amplification of Gods mercy in pardoning it, both which the Apostle intendeth in that place. And therefore I had rather take it in a literal sense, namely that in truth he calleth himself the greatest sinner that had received mercy. First because he speaketh as he thinketh, and findeth himself in his own sense and feeling: for as it is the nature of hypocrisy to make our own beams moats, and others moats beams; so it is the nature of true repentance, to aggravate our own sins, and to extenuate other mens: and when the eyes of our minds are enlightened, we see our sins to be more in number, and more heinous in quality, either in themselves, or in respect of circumstances, than we can charitably suspect to be in any other of Gods servants. Secondly, because he speaketh in my judgement as the thing is. For if we limit his speech to the faithful only, who upon their repentance, have been received to grace;